Elder Scrolls: Arena
Dave Tawatao
only with this title, but also Bethesda's product support. First off, I
think the graphics are incredible. People have argued that Doom's and
Ultima Underworld's are better, but they don't compare with the
scope and immense size of Arena's virtual world. A world with hundreds
of small and large towns located in several different regions, with
different cultures and beliefs. A whole calendar year, with holidays and
rituals, different seasons - weather patterns such as rain, snow, and
fog. Day and night with a setting sun (depending what region you're in),
and stars that rise and fall as well. All of this, affecting the way you
play the game. You have the ability to travel
anywhere by foot (which will take forever) or the fast travel option
(point-and-click-you're-there). People have argued that the graphics are
slow, even on a fast machine. True, but turning the detail level down
speeds it up, by not showing objects far ahead of you, just like the
detail setting in Betrayal at Krondor. People have also argued that
all the NPC's walking around the towns are useless automatons, and that
the towns themselves are just a giant maze with nothing to do. Somewhat
true, but mostly untrue. The townsfolk are automatons, but they provide
aesthetics, making it look like a real town with busy, have-to-get-there
people. How about the questions you can ask them? "Who are you?",
"Where is..?", "Rumors...General & Work?". Now they're not totally
useless because they can help you find particular places, and direct you
to a person that you can work for. Think of the NPC's in this game being
on different levels. The lowest level NPC are the monsters and people
that you get into fights with - no interaction except a clash of
swords. The next level NPC is the townfolk described above - gives
immediate information and/or service, people that you just pass on the
street everyday. The next level are the employers, nobles, etc. - people
that have need of your services. The actual towns also add to the feel
of the game. And yes, with the right amount of experience and you're
character class you can break into building. I used a thief to pick a
lock on a building where once inside, found a mage's lab with some
magic gauntlets on the second floor.
Now these jobs or quests that you find
or that are given to you are directly related to your reputation and
experience level. So naturally, you'll start off with the mundane -
escorts, beast slaying, message delivery, etc. - pretty boring stuff.
But you prove yourself with these tasks. One player reported on CI$ that
his quests started getting better and better. A princess, gave him the
quest of finding her kidnapped sister. Turns out it was a vampire that
snatched her away, and fighting the thing was no easy task. Anyway, how
about retrieving an enchanted shield from a keep, or a sword lost
somewhere in a dungeon? Sounds like pretty good quests, but you need to
build up your character before you're given these types. What this all
leads up to is the Main Quest of the game - retrieve eight pieces of a
staff to release your Emperor from an off-world prison.
Anyway, combat is something that once you get the hang of, is sort of fun
and adds to the game. Having a combo of using the keyboard to move your
character around, and the mouse to take your different swings. Also,
people have a problem with advesaries just popping out of thin air, or
unexpectedly from behind. I complained to Bethesda about that but I
guess that's just part of the game (they didn't say if they'd improve it).
Which brings me to their tech support team. I'm impressed because over the
weekend, they released a patch for the game that fixed some bugs that
people had posted earlier that week. The patch fixed some quadrant
jerks, tuned the detail-level so slower machines would run it faster, the
ability to sell spells at a store, and other fixes. They were on-line
answering everyone's posted notice in two different forums on CI$.
Anyway, this post is much larger than I thought I'd write but since there
have been so few good posts about the game I thought I'd throw in my
.02.
Please, no flames - I like the game for what it is, and so do many
others. You finally get to explore a huge virtual world set in medieval
fantasy, doing what you want with no time constraints.
Scott Hensley
There are some definite problems with Elder, but on the whole its
a step in the right direction (very soon its going to all come
together... be patient). People who complain that the NPCs are
'robotic' should measure their words more carefully. Please
name another CRPG out today where the NPCs are not automatons.
Like every NPC in a town is supposed to walk up to the player
and start handing out gold and items, and telling the player what
he should do next. Yeah right. How much interaction is a
12th level Nightblade supposed to have with a peasant. Not much
in my opinion. The only way that kind of detail will happen is
when most of the players in the game are human controlled (don't
you think that Elder would be a cool engine for a multi-player
game, with some fixes of course).
Later,
Scott
=====
The opinions expressed above reflect the mass consciousness of all
life-forms in the multiverse. They should be considered the gospel.
=====